One Step After Another
by GraVirTy
Summary: Ziggy's first day as a Ranger. Set between "Go For The Green" and "Handshake".


_I'm still working on "Doing It For You", but I thought I'd do something to get myself out of my writer's block on that story. Not that they're related or anything._

**One Step After Another**  
><strong>by GraVirTy<strong>

Ziggy's alarm clock woke him up precisely at six, and for a moment he couldn't remember why. He slapped at it, hoping he'd remember how to turn the damned thing off while his brain was still coming to terms with being awake. He usually didn't have any reason to wake up at six; it wasn't like he was on the team or any-

Wait.

Oh, yeah. That's why the alarm was going off. He was now a Ranger. Ranger Operator Series Green, matter of fact, and the whole thing was permanent. No matter how much he'd like to pretend the previous day didn't happen, it had, and he had to deal with it.

"So," he said to the walls of his room, "Gotta start training, huh." Actually, testing first, because Doctor K hadn't put him through it the day before, citing too many things to do before running him through testing. In reality, he bet that if Doctor K wasn't a computer, that he'd gone out to the nearest bar to forget that Ziggy had bonded with his precious morpher.

He wasn't looking forward to the testing thing at all, because he didn't even pretend that he'd pass any of the tests. And he wasn't that keen on hearing how much of a failure he was from Doctor K, even if it meant that he'd actually start training at some point that day, and he really would like to skip being killed in battle by his own incompetence, thanks.

At some point in the near future, he hoped he'd figure out what possessed him to bond with his morpher. Being part of Corinth's first line of defense didn't thrill him, not at all. The only good side was that he now had his own room. Doctor K hadn't been happy to tell him that, but at least he did have a place to stay. He wasn't going anywhere, not given that he got free room and board in a safe place as a Ranger.

Heading downstairs, he thought about what to have for breakfast. Something healthy would be good, keep his spirits up for Doctor K. He had a longing for applesauce, but he didn't think that they had it in the fridge or cupboards. He'd have to make his own, but that wasn't too hard. In the meantime, there were several good cereals to choose from, and some orange juice. He'd have some of those, and then he'd be as ready to go as he'd ever be.

And besides, the day had to be better than the day before, didn't it? It had started with the auditions, continued with Tenaya Seven's rescue, then finding out she was an AttackBot, having to bond with the morpher because otherwise he'd break his promise to Doctor K, and then having to spend the evening alone because nobody knew quite what to do with him.

He was sure that Dillon would have been willing to spend time with him, but he'd isolated himself, because at least in his room he could hide the morpher for a few hours and pretend he hadn't made the decision he had. And then maybe Dillon could concentrate on not getting reamed for letting him bond. Not that Dillon really cared about what Scott or the others thought, but Ziggy didn't want to cause any more problems than he had.

"Mornin', Ziggy." Flynn was up, which didn't surprise Ziggy one bit, and was working on his own breakfast. He thought he'd seen Summer heading for the shower, and had no clue where Dillon and Scott were.

"Morning." He'd sit there and he'd pretend that his world hadn't changed overnight and he was still just Dillon's weird friend who did the laundry and cleaned up the place in return for room and board, at least until he had to come in for his tests and had to be a real, live Ranger.

He realized that Flynn was looking at his shirt as if it was faintly scandalous. Which it shouldn't be, because it was a plain white, button-down shirt to replace the one that he'd been wearing in the wastelands. He'd wanted to look respectable on his first day on the job. Never mind that Doctor K probably wanted him in a t-shirt. Hm. Maybe he should change.

"Did I get something on this shirt? Because, y'know, I'd like to be prepared for things, and it would be nice if I could show up with, y'know, the right gear for the job. I mean, I can't make a worse impression on Doctor K, but-"

"Maybe you should be wearing that green shirt of yours, lad," Flynn said, interrupting his sentence. "You're going to need something a bit more casual for what Doctor K's going to put you through."

"Green shirt. Right." He only had one green shirt, which made it easy.

"And after that… we might want to take you shopping."

"Not that I'm opposed to that, but… I think my wardrobe's pretty decent." He'd done a good job of picking out clothes when he and Dillon had arrived on base and they'd been allowed to do some shopping.

"Yeah, but I've seen you. How much green do you have?"

"Um." Flynn's line of conversation suddenly made sense. He'd never seen the Rangers without their signature colors, and Dillon had groused for a little bit about the fact that it was good that he liked black. He'd be expected to wear green all the time – all part of the uniform. "Very little."

"I'll take you shopping after Doctor K's done with you – don't want to get sick and die for lack of green, after all." Flynn grinned suddenly. "Don't worry, you'll get used to it."

"Get sick and what?" Ziggy asked. Why would what he was wearing affect his health? "Die? You're kidding me."

"Doctor K says because of the way the morpher interacts with the biofields, it ties in somehow with our colors. Have to be wearing something the right color or it really messes things up."

On the scale of one to stealing that truck, bonding with the morpher was now running pretty damn close to the truck. There was so much he didn't realize about the Rangers that he was going to learn very, very fast in order to survive. At least Flynn seemed willing to forgive his unauthorized bond with the morpher. Doctor K and Scott? Entirely different stories. Summer? She'd probably be like Flynn.

The lab door opened and Scott walked out. He must have been having a meeting with Doctor K, probably about Ziggy. Who seemed to be everybody's headache at the moment.

"You're seriously not testing in that," Scott said as he noticed Ziggy, eyebrows raised.

"Well, no. But you know, first day, new job, want to look my best, thanks. I'll… go change now. Or when I have breakfast. One of the two."

"Let the lad have breakfast first," Flynn said, surprising Ziggy by sticking up for him. "I already talked to him about his clothes. Going to have to take him shopping, anyway, unless we want a seriously sick Ranger."

Scott gave him a brief nod. "Yeah, we don't want that." But his tone said that he didn't consider that a completely bad thing. Of course, if Ziggy died, then he wouldn't have to contend with a useless Ranger Green, would he?

But Ziggy was pretty sure it would be hard to cover up the evidence if he did. Covering up evidence was hard, he'd learned that when he'd been with the Scorpions. And he'd make the best of what he had; he wasn't about to die just because Scott didn't like him.

"'Course, I don't think Doctor K wants you testing on an empty stomach, either," Flynn said, turning back to Ziggy.

"Food. Eating. Got it." He chose one of the mixed-grain cereals and poured it into a bowl, grabbing the milk and pouring it on top, and then pouring a glass of orange juice for himself.

"Anyway, I'm going to talk to Dad. Fill him in on what happened."

Ziggy gulped. He wasn't keen on the most powerful man in Corinth knowing that Ziggy was now a Ranger. He might not be as lenient as his son.

"Right. Rest of us'll stay here," Flynn said. "I figure Ziggy's going to be busy all morning."

Ziggy, trying to concentrate on his breakfast instead of the pit rapidly forming itself in his stomach, stared at the bowl as if it would calm him down.

/8/8/8/8

One outfit change and two hours later, he was toweling himself off from Doctor K's last test. Needless to say, his scores hadn't been anywhere near acceptable for Doctor K, which wasn't surprising because he'd never really been an athlete. Being tossed around, disoriented, thrown projectiles at, and drowned was not his idea of how to spend a morning, no matter how relatively short the tests were. Personally, he wasn't keen on being told he had the lung capacity of a twelve year old, even if he knew that it was probably true.

Of course, he wasn't keen on feeling like Doctor K would have gleefully drowned him if he could have gotten away with it. Ziggy bet the only reason he was still alive was that the oh-so-precise Doctor K wouldn't be able to explain why he'd allowed Ziggy to drown.

"You will require intense training to bring you up to par," the screen said. "I am scheduling you for exercises, including exercises meant to increase your general fitness. In addition, I will be scheduling you with other members of this team to teach you fighting techniques. Your current state cannot stand for long, not if you are going to be a productive member of this team."

"Right. I'll just-" But what he was about to say, that he would really like to sit down for about an hour, and then he'd be more than willing to do whatever training the good doctor wanted, was quickly interrupted by Doctor K.

"You will start with orientation training," Doctor K said. "Given your propensity for being tossed in the air, the ability to avoid motion sickness from being spun in multiple dimensions will be able to assist you until you can fight properly."

"Orientation – you mean that spin thingy." He'd nearly puked after encountering it.

"Yes. That and proper handling of your axe will be your first two lessons. I also expect you to be training regularly on your own. I see that you at least know how to eat healthily, though you will now be required to switch to a diet that assists you in performing your Ranger duties."

"I think you just complimented me there, Doc." He knew his mouth would get him in trouble, but he couldn't resist.

"The comment regarding your eating habits was a statement of fact, not a compliment." The screen was silent for a moment. "You are released for the moment to go with Ranger Blue for the purpose of obtaining outfits. Be aware that you will be required to wear the color green in some form at all times to maintain your health, and if you fail to do so, I will take action to make sure that is corrected."

"Right. Flynn explained that to me." Maybe if he seemed cooperative, Doctor K would let him leave. Shopping was a more pleasant idea at the moment.

"Perhaps, then, I should add that as a Ranger, you must maintain awareness of your physical state. If you need treatment, you must tell me so. If you become ill, I must also be notified. The future of humanity is at stake."

"Yeah. You've mentioned that before." He wobbled out of the lab, intent on finding Flynn. At least he could sit down then.

/8/8/8/8

When Ziggy had gotten some clothes to replace the ones he lost when he'd unexpectedly had to leave Corinth, nobody had known that Dillon was a new Ranger, and so they'd been able to shop in peace. With Flynn, it was a different story. Everybody knew who Flynn was, and so they'd had a salesperson shoved at them a minute or so after they'd arrived at the box store.

"I'd like some shirts," he said to the salesgirl. "Dark green," he'd added.

It was obvious from the morpher on his wrist that he was a Ranger, and so the salesgirl at least was extra careful, taking him from rack to table and back, until he found a set of dark green shirts he liked. They were good shirts, relatively inexpensive for Corinth. And they had enough to last him a week to a week and a half, once he and the salesgirl – Marie – scrounged around for a bit, until she had to put out a t-shirt that had somehow burst into flames. Then it was him on his own chasing down boxers with enough green in them to keep him out of trouble, and a few other things with a green shade. Flynn made the purchases, and they were soon out of there.

"You doing okay there?" Flynn asked as Ziggy stared down at the bag with their purchases. It still seemed unreal in some ways, being a Ranger, but at least nothing had attacked, and he had some breathing room.

"Yeah," Ziggy said, trying to sound like becoming a Ranger was the most normal thing on the planet for him. Never mind everything he'd have to do to actually manage it, which would probably terrify him if he paused to think about it. He'd have to take things one day at a time, start training, do the best that he could.

One foot in front of the other. He could probably manage that. Someday even after being swirled around in Doctor K's machine.

"Done much fighting before?" Flynn asked, after a moment.

"Kind of skipped that part," Ziggy said. "I could duck like a champion, though. Throw anything at me and I could dodge it. Except, er, when it's being shot out of a gun." He winced at how many balls had hit him during that part of Doctor K's test.

"Well, we've got you now, gotta do with what we have," Flynn said, as if trying to be reassuring because Ziggy had utterly failed at convincing him that Everything Was All Right.

Ziggy debated telling him that he didn't really feel like he was a Ranger, but that was admitting weakness far more than he wanted to admit. Sure, he'd admit that he was uncoordinated and weak, but he wouldn't admit that he just shouldn't be in that situation, that it felt so unreal that it felt like he was dreaming.

"We'll just have to train you, that's all. Probably Summer's the best bet – you're taller, but you've got a slim frame." At least Flynn wasn't acting like he was unwelcome. Just… unexpected, that was all.

Maybe if they all saw him that way, he could get through this. The training, saving the world, all of it. Things Ziggy Grover thought would never involve him, until he made a promise he really shouldn't have, all to try to make Doctor K hate him less.

And now he was really stuck with Doctor K as his boss, and this was one job that there was no way, no how he was going to shirk. For one thing, when he said he'd do something, he did it, and for another, Doctor K was pretty good at getting things done for a computer screen.

"Thanks," Ziggy said after a moment.

"Still a little dazed at suddenly being a Ranger, are you?" Flynn asked, as they turned into the industrial area where their base was.

"Maybe a little bit," Ziggy said. "But I'm going to make the best of it, too." Make the best of it, make Doctor K a little happier, he could do that if he tried. Couldn't be too hard, right?

At least Ziggy hoped so, for his own sake.

"That's the spirit, lad," Flynn said, giving him a grin.

/8/8/8/8

So, he'd barely finished having lunch and putting his new clothes away when Doctor K paged him. He sighed with resignation and wondered if he should have skipped lunch – hard to lose food that wasn't in his stomach in the first place. Then again, he would probably have been lectured for even thinking about it.

He stepped into the lab and looked up at Doctor K's monitor. "So?" he asked.

The computer voice sighed. "We will update your immunizations, and then I will lay out a training schedule for you. Ranger Red has volunteered to teach you the basics of hand-to-hand combat today, and then tomorrow you will be attending training on your axe and orientation. You will attend two training sessions each day for the foreseeable future."

"So, I get to learn to fight." He found himself grinning. Maybe he'd survive his choice after all.

"That is what I said, Ranger Green. Now, for the moment, step up to the eastern wall next to the cases. We will start your immunization updates there."

Ziggy, wanting to at least try to stay on the right foot with Doctor K, did so. It wasn't until he felt the spray of a liquid followed by a sharp pain that he realized that he was literally getting his shots. He forced himself to stay by the wall, moving as Doctor K instructed, even though it hurt. He didn't like shots at the best of times.

Well, okay, Dr. Wong, the dentist he'd had as a kid was an expert in making him not feel a shot go in, but nobody else could manage it, including his new boss.

At last the computer voice let him step away from the wall. "You will be given a thirty minute period to recover, and then you will meet Ranger Red for training."

"No problem." If he could handle immunizations, he could handle Scott. Besides, no matter how he was liked or disliked, he was still a member of their team, right? Or at least until they figured out how to quietly get rid of him, but they seemed too goody-goody to do something like that.

He headed back out to the kitchen area, planning to drink some more orange juice – he felt like some after all the immunizations, and he'd always felt better after drinking it.

"Wasn't too bad, wasn't it?" Flynn asked. Ziggy realized belatedly that Summer was with Flynn.

"Nothing I couldn't handle," he said, wanting to seem at least somewhat confident in front of Summer.

"Looks like Doctor K did your shots," Summer said, smiling as if to make him feel more comfortable. "Feel a bit more like you're one of us now?"

"Well, not precisely," Ziggy answered, "But at the very least I won't be giving anyone anything that I just got a shot for. Not that I needed that many."

Only about six, really, but he wasn't going to mention that.

"Good," Summer said. "We're having movie night tonight, and you're invited."

He'd been invited before, so while he was sure that it was Summer's way of inviting him in, he didn't know how to say that it wouldn't bond him to his team. Of course, everything had to start somewhere. Maybe this was the way to go.

"Okay." And it was better than brooding in his room. Better to leave the brooding to Dillon.

"Might be good if Dillon joins us as well," Flynn said casually. Ziggy had to admit that Dillon's idea of fun was not movie nights. Working on his car, yes. Driving his car, yes. Sitting on the sofas with the rest of the team, no.

He suddenly realized that Flynn and Summer were not precisely trying to bond with him, but with Dillon. He wanted to feel betrayed for a moment, but decided that getting visibly upset would do nothing. If they wanted Dillon, he'd get his friend over to watch movies. It probably wouldn't hurt to see him as a teammate, either, because he didn't think they really saw him as one, though they were trying.

And he didn't mind meeting them halfway. Not if it got them all somewhere, in a mutually beneficial arrangement, as Fresno Bob would say.

"So, what's next?" Summer asked, brushing her long hair back. "I'm going to take a nap, and I know Flynn's got his stuff."

"Training with Scott, Doctor K says."

"He'll do good for you, lad." Flynn smiled. "Teach you how to fight, for sure."

Ziggy had no doubt about that.

/8/8/8/8

An hour later, Ziggy came out of the training room. Scott wasn't the happiest person around, but Ziggy was sure his natural charm, plus his dedication to actually learning to be a Ranger, helped their team leader get used to him and at least Ziggy felt like he was going to learn something that allowed him to do a decent job with it. But he didn't press his luck, so when Scott dismissed him, he left as quickly as he could without making it seem like he was running away.

Of course, he wasn't looking where he was going, so he bumped straight into Dillon. It occurred to him that he should have probably said hello sometime that day, but he'd been busy eating breakfast, being tested, shopping, getting his shots, and training that he hadn't had time for Dillon.

So, it was a good a time as any. "Hi, Dillon. Good morning – er, afternoon."

"Are they treating you okay?" Dillon asked, not bothering with either greeting.

"Well, Flynn made sure I don't spontaneously combust or whatever for not wearing green, and Doctor K tested me – I failed everything, by the way. And then I had lunch, and shots, and Scott taught me how to not feel so stupid in combat, a little." He wondered if he should apologize to Dillon for leaving him alone, which reminded him. "And Summer says that we should come watch a movie this evening. Oh, and a shirt caught on fire at the store."

He could see Dillon try to parse that. "Just as long as they know you're now on the team," Dillon said finally.

"Oh, yeah. They know that. They just needed some time." Okay, the previous evening was not a lot of time, but it was time. "I needed some time. It was cool."

"Yeah, well, you don't normally lock yourself in your room, so I wanted to make sure that they didn't do anything stupid."

"I didn't lock myself in! I just accidentally hit the lock or something." He didn't remember locking himself in. "And you could have knocked."

"Yeah, well. Maybe I should have. You're the one that's always telling me to spend more time with them." Dillon jerked his hand roughly in the direction of the maintenance area of the garage. "If I'm not allowed to brood, neither are you."

"I can do that." Summer and Flynn would get what they wanted that evening for sure. So would Ziggy. "So, movie night?"

Dillon frowned at that. Looked like he was debating saying no, so Ziggy let loose his puppy dog eyes. They'd been good for so many cons, and he knew that they worked on Dillon as well. "All right," Dillon said.

Ziggy grinned. If Dillon could get used to being a Ranger, so could he, and the rest of the team would get used to them eventually. He knew they would.

-end


End file.
